1. Field of Technology
The embodiments herein generally relate to electronic devices with touch screen displays. More particularly, the embodiments relate to user interfaces and gestures on a touch screen display.
2. Background
As portable electronic devices become more compact and the functions of the devices increase, it is increasingly difficult to design a user interface that allows users to easily interact with the multifunctional devices. This challenge is particularly significant for handheld portable devices, which have much smaller screens than desktop or laptop computers. This situation is unfortunate because the user interface is the gateway through which users receive not only content but also responses to user actions or behaviors, including user attempts to access a device's features, tools, and functions.
To improve user interaction with portable electronic devices, some portable devices include more pushbuttons that are each associated with a particular functionality, assign multiple functions to each pushbutton, or use complex menu systems to allow users to access the various functionalities of the devices. These conventional user interfaces often result in complicated key sequences and menu hierarchies that must be memorized by the user.